China, Japan supportive of his meeting with North Korean leader, president says
U. S. President Donald Trump expressed faith Saturday that North Korea would keep its promise to halt missile tests, days after his surprise acceptance of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s invitation to discuss Pyongyang’s nuclear program.
The president tweeted:
It was not immediately clear whether the president was referring to his planned meeting with Kim or other meetings.
Trump said earlier Saturday that he had spoken with the leaders of China and Japan about his acceptance of Kim’s invitation and that they were supportive of his unprecedented diplomatic mission.
The White House announced Thursday that Trump had accepted Kim’s invitation, which was delivered to him verbally that day by visiting South Korean officials. The move revived hopes that a nearly decadelong diplomatic stalemate between the U. S. and North Korea could be broken.
But Trump faces complex, unresolved issues, according to former U. S. officials and analysts who have dealt with North Korea extensively.
Ken Gause, director of the International Affairs Group at the Center for Naval Analyses, welcomed the announcement, calling it «extraordinary and historical.»
Alexander Vershbow, who served as the U. S. ambassador to Seoul during the George W. Bush administration, said the acceptance of the invitation was «the right thing for President Trump to do.»
The invitation to meet by May established a time frame that raised concern among some analysts in Washington.
«I am concerned by President Trump’s response to the invitation that he meet with Kim Jong Un — not that he agreed to meet, but that he agreed to meet by May,» said Robert Einhorn, a special adviser for nonproliferation and arms control in former President Barack Obama’s administration.
Einhorn said he thought Trump should have agreed to lower-level exploratory talks that «could test North Korea’s seriousness.
